samedi 16 août 2003

Cringely, Cost, Value, Brains, Harbingers I'll confess to being a sucker for some of Robert Cringely's writing. Unlike Dvorak, who is entertaining and widely panned, Cringely stories invariably provoke in me the "Crap, you're right!" response. Plus he shills for Apple, and now that I'm a kool-aid drinker, you can't get better than that. In this story he touches on Apple and xServes, wondering why such an obviously better alternative isn't selling like hotcakes. He attributes it to the "IT Department Full Employment Act". The IT department is interested in company efficiency, but threatened by IT efficiency. He claims Linux is the perfect choice: it improves company efficiency while ensuring the need for lots of IT geeks. The article then tackles the topic of outsourcing, both to India and to large consulting firms (which then outsource to India). Quite an interesting line of logic. I love his rather-obvious but well-forgotten maxim about selling *value*. In the rush to lower internal costs, is external value tossed out? Apple, for instance, has continued to make great decisions regarding the value of things that are sold to you, even in the face of a harsh economy. Cringely then takes this discussion to consulting, which is particularly timely, as Zope Europe is beginning its second phase, to improve the business network of Zope companies. Longer quote: "Part of the myth of IT outsourcing is that it saves money because you only pay for big brains when you need big brains, but that's not true, either. In the IBM example, you only get the brains if you're will to pay for consulting services. For every hour of brains, you will be charged three hours. The other two hours go to management and project management, which is to say they are wasted." "I even have doubts about the quality of those brains, too, not just at IBM, but at virtually any of its competitors. That's because the financial model for outsourcing doesn't pay to maintain education and certification. IBM cut most of that a couple years ago, and the rest of it went this year. In another year or two, most of IBM's MSCE's will have expired, for example. The ones that will remain will be those who paid for it out of their own pockets. Where are the brains in that?" For every hour of alleged brains, you have to pay three hours. Experienced customers know this, and fear this. And likewise, I know it too, and in the sales process, you're darn right that I play on that fear. Zope Europe is doing its first partner bid right now, and I specifically said: "You're getting the people that write the software." When you can say that, *and* find a way to ensure a professional organization at low risk to the customer, then you're going to have a lot of sympathetic sales prospects. During the last year, my talks on open source business models have been confronted by cynicism. The perception is that open source in business proved a fraud when the bubble burst. My counter has been, "Well, lots of proprietary companies failed too." What I thought, but didn't say, was: Just wait. Just wait. Because, just as the first flush of hypersuccess was a false prophet, the first round of spectacular failure was similarly a false harbinger. Just wait. Open source's value proposition for the customer is so obvious that demand is there. It just takes the eBay-style combination of luck, brains, and execution to convert that demand to valid business. Someone will do it. After this bid process, I feel like Zope Europe has 2 of the 4 pieces needed to throw its hat in the ring and say, "We're doing it." One things for sure with these Zope companies in Europe that I get to work with: great brains at great prices. 10:57:42 AM   comment []